Today we saw a pediatric ophthalmologist to see what's up with Judith's eyes. Our exam was a bit more comprehensive than the previous one this summer, and I definitely had much better vibes from the staff and doctor at this office!
Basically what we're monitoring her for is something called strabismus. In a nutshell, strabismus is a condition where the eyes are misaligned, and they can drift inward, outward, upward, or downward. This is potentially what I have been seeing over the last few months, and what the OT wanted us to have checked. If this is the case, it could be contributing to Judith's fine motor delays (per the OT).
Judith had her eyes dilated again, and I do feel bad for her; I hate having my eyes dilated, and I know it sucks, but in some ways I'm glad we had an evening appointment because she can hang out in the dark tonight (and sleep of course!). We know a little more about her farsightedness. My hunch is more than likely correct: the doctor said that many preemies who have vision problems (especially due to ROP) are nearsighted, so Judith's farsightedness is more than likely genetic, coming from my mom's side of the family. If she follows our genetic tendencies, she'll probably have an astigmatism (like my mom and I do) and be nearsighted once she gets older.
Anyway. She's not showing any signs of regression or lingering problems from the ROP. The little stinker also decided not to let her eyes shift like they were just a few hours before her appointment - they were straight throughout the exam, so the doctor gave me a brochure with some pictures explaining what strabismus and pseudostrabismus look like. I will have to look at some of her pictures again and see if I can figure out what's up; I'll also have to remember to load some of her recent pictures to my iPod so I can show them to the doctor at our next visit.
As it stands right now, Judith's kind of at an in-between point: she will definitely need glasses in the near future, but right now she can get away without them. We have another appointment in 6 weeks, and it's possible we could be talking about getting her some glasses to help her out. Really, it's not a big deal; however, I'm trying to figure out how the heck we're going to keep glasses on her at this age.
I have a general blog announcement. As you may have noticed, there is a new badge/banner at the very top of my side column. We are now listed on the site Top Mommy Blogs under the Special Needs section! It would be awesome if you would vote for us - simply click on the badge, and it will take you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. All you need to do is click, and the banner will track your vote. Pretty simple, right? I would love to see our blog near the top of the list so we can help raise awareness for prematurity and cystic fibrosis, and to accomplish that we need you to vote! Thank you so much!
Showing posts with label ROP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ROP. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Eye Exam
Judith had a 6 month follow-up eye exam today, and while I'm thrilled we don't have to go back to that place ever again, I wasn't overly thrilled with having to go and the mess with the receptionists.
I was irked when we got to the check-in desk, because they don't accept secondary insurance, especially MA. This would have been very nice to know beforehand, because I certainly was not prepared with the main co-pay. Thank goodness my mom had cash on her so we could cover it. Nowhere in any of the information that they sent me did it say what kind of insurance they accepted, and I'm glad they took our primary because I would've blown a gasket on them if we got there and they said they wouldn't accept that. They half argued with me about things, and I said, "Well it would've been nice to know what insurance you accepted before we came here." Then they asked who made the appointment, and I told them the hospital made it for us. They were a little nicer to me then, even though I was never nasty to them. Turds. /vent.
Apparently this exam was completely unnecessary. Her ROP was resolved/healed before she was discharged from the NICU, and the doctor that saw her for her eyes dictated in his letter that we only needed to be seen before a year if she was presenting with symptoms indicating vision problems. Both the nurse and the doc we saw questioned why we were even there, and the whole time I was sitting there a bit irritated that this bit of information was left out of our discharge instructions. I could've been saved the aggravation of throwing Judith's schedule out of whack to drive all the way up to Bethlehem, through multiple construction zones (thanks PennDOT for not completing your work on time again), and completely missing the place because we couldn't find the road we were looking for and it came up suddenly on us (my mom went along with me to help, and she's old school - she doesn't have a GPS). We found out that Judith is far sighted - I'm not willing to fully pin that on the ROP, because we have a family history of that - and she will need to be examined again in 9-12 months. Thank goodness we got a referral to a good opthamologist in Reading so we won't have to travel as far next time.
I was irked when we got to the check-in desk, because they don't accept secondary insurance, especially MA. This would have been very nice to know beforehand, because I certainly was not prepared with the main co-pay. Thank goodness my mom had cash on her so we could cover it. Nowhere in any of the information that they sent me did it say what kind of insurance they accepted, and I'm glad they took our primary because I would've blown a gasket on them if we got there and they said they wouldn't accept that. They half argued with me about things, and I said, "Well it would've been nice to know what insurance you accepted before we came here." Then they asked who made the appointment, and I told them the hospital made it for us. They were a little nicer to me then, even though I was never nasty to them. Turds. /vent.
Apparently this exam was completely unnecessary. Her ROP was resolved/healed before she was discharged from the NICU, and the doctor that saw her for her eyes dictated in his letter that we only needed to be seen before a year if she was presenting with symptoms indicating vision problems. Both the nurse and the doc we saw questioned why we were even there, and the whole time I was sitting there a bit irritated that this bit of information was left out of our discharge instructions. I could've been saved the aggravation of throwing Judith's schedule out of whack to drive all the way up to Bethlehem, through multiple construction zones (thanks PennDOT for not completing your work on time again), and completely missing the place because we couldn't find the road we were looking for and it came up suddenly on us (my mom went along with me to help, and she's old school - she doesn't have a GPS). We found out that Judith is far sighted - I'm not willing to fully pin that on the ROP, because we have a family history of that - and she will need to be examined again in 9-12 months. Thank goodness we got a referral to a good opthamologist in Reading so we won't have to travel as far next time.
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